I saw Kevin McDermott at the Victoria Hotel in Largs last night. We were a bit last minute about it and called the hotel to see if we would get in. "Ten tickets left", they said. We asked them to keep us two and they did. A beautiful Ayrshire coast sunset accompanied the drive to Largs.
In all, there were about thirty paying guests in the upper room, so it was a very intimate gig. Mr McDermott played a lot of songs from his first three albums, which suited me fine, as its that material I'm most familiar with. I haven't seen him play for ten years or more, but his voice has stood the test of time very well, and he played his songs with some passion. The audience were mostly devotees apart from two women from Largs who told us they went to most of the gigs at the hotel, but weren't familiar with his older stuff. They left shortly after the interval.
Continuing on from my previous experience a few months ago of "stalking" musicians, we ended up talking to Kevin and his girlfriend during the interval because they were sitting at the table next to us. Sadly, he no longer has the rights to his early material, presumably because the record company keeps the rights in order to recoup the advance that artists get when they sign a deal. He seemed stoical about that and was good-humoured throughout the show. He obviously enjoyed talking to the punters afterwards and it was a pleasure to spend an evening in the company of someone who delights in his craft.
He even commented on how cool the posters were outside the church and referred to me as he sang a line in the song that follows. We had a really good night out. He's at the Victoria Hotel, Largs tonight as well.
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